Secondary menu

Tertiary Menu

McCain and Millard Fillmore

A blog (from "web blog") is a discussion or informational site consisting of discrete entries ("posts") typically displayed newest first. All Corrente posts are front-paged; there is no up-rate or down-rate process. Corrente posts are almost entirely community moderated. We encourage a clash of ideas, and do not encourage a clash of persons.

If you are the author of this post, see the Edit tab ad Help (and Advanced Help) for detailed documentation.

Comments

increasingly I feel that lambert is correct, the sane republicans (Arrianna Huffington, Aravosis, Kos, Webb, etc) left the Republican party and co-opted ours. Historically a new conservative party has arisen when the old one collapses, and so it may be on this occasion. But it is at least possible that the Democratic party is in the process of being utterly co-opted and that a new progressive party will arise. How I cannot say, the Greens have completely lost credibility.

There's no fundamental law of nature that says a political vacuum on the left can't exist. For example, no progressive party arose in Germany in the 1930s, and I wouldn't say that Blair's Labor Party was a progressive response to Thatcher's Tory dominance. Nor do the more left-of-center blogs attract the readership of the more conservative Democratic blogs.

It's quite possible that the progressive ideology will cease to exist as a political force, and in fact it may have already.

after Hitler became Chancellor? I'm not comparing Obama to Hitler or Dems to Nazis, except in the sense that one faction - a non-progressive faction - is going to sweep into power, probably in a landslide (which the NSDAP lacked) in both the Presidential and Congressional elections. 2% less evil still isn't progressive, and there's no other alternative left-of-center with any political power. Where's it going to come from? Something like the White Rose doesn't count.

The logical consequence of your posted Steny Hoyer quote is that neither Obama nor the Dem leadership are going to require a Reichstag fire - we've had several already - to begin marginalizing the progressive agenda. In fact they've already begun. There's simply no reason to believe FISA and the bailout (conveniently sucking up the cash needed to pursue any other part of the progressive program) aren't harbingers. There isn't even much in Obama's platform or stump speeches that would let you assume otherwise.

And I would say there is a progressive ideology, if only being the side of the issues where more than 50% of the American electorate sits. There also is/was a Progressive agenda in WI (the Badger State) in the first half of the last century, and a lot of it remains relevant today (some in spirit, some literally, although some of it deserves to be set aside too) - it was anti-war (WW I), pro-regulation and favored primaries over caucuses among other things. It led to programs like Social Security. I'd agree 'progressive' is a fairly slippery term, but whatever it means, it almost certainly doesn't apply to anything that's likely to come out of DC in the next 4 years.

The country is due for a real political realignment. Instead of getting that with Hillary* (or, perhaps Edwards**) we got Obama. And we still have "progressives"*** who want to rationalize Obama's capitulation of conservativism.

* Hillary was getting the "angry white" person demographic, not because she was merely a different person, but because of her platform which, while "corporate", was genuinely liberal and had a lot of backdoors for even more radical liberal policies (see: health care). She has also been the most consistently anti-conservative, not just anti-corporate

** I don't trust Edwards, but his campaign promises were at least as good as Hillary's.

*** Can I stop using quotes for "progressives"? Can we just realize that the the Marshall/Bowers/Stoller/Kos/Huffington "progressives" are really just C-list Broderites? Can we demarcate "progressives" for what they are: libertarian Democrats? Can we get back to Liberal again?

Hindsight is always 20/20, I know, but what would have happened if progressives had taken to the streets following the election of Ronald Reagan, instead of relying on the Democrats to take care of business?

My larger point being that this trend is a long time in coming, and should be a surprise to no one.

I wish the secular conservatives would have seriously taken on their religious counterparts in the GOP so as to save us Democrats their left/crossovers, but I can understand why they didn't. There has got to be some way that gives them incentive to purge themselves of the more radical Evangelicals. As long as their allowed such a large say in the GOP party, we'll never be done with arguing abortion and gay marriage and the like.

Summer is here so PLEASE help lambert...

... who still needs buy seeds and soil, especially since "Winter is coming," and pay the bills so he can feed the hamsters that power the wheels that turn the servers at The Mighty Corrente Building. Please, won't you help keep the hamsters shiny and well-fed?

No PayPal Account required! Give the hamsters immediate relief!

Or Subscribe to make a monthly payment!

Corrente is completely supported by contributions from readers (and, to be fair, a tiny smidge of Powell's commissions). We do not take advertising, so we can say whatever the Fuck we want. Thank you!

<i>Conventional Wisdom</i>. Usage example: The slightly stale CW, as promulgated by bigfoot "Dean" Broder. (As an abbreviation for the name of a certain C-list blog, CW may alternatively mean the opposite of "Conventional Wisdom.")

Citibank Plutonomy files

"What could go wrong?
Beyond war, inflation, the end of the technology/productivity wave, and financial collapse, we think the most potent and short-term threat would be societies demanding a more ‘equitable’ share of wealth."

Corrente Fellows (emeritus)

Nothing within this site or linked to by this site constitutes investment (snort) advice, or legal advice, or medical advice, or any kind of advice. BANKSTER WEASEL PROPHYLACTIC: The word "alleged" is deemed to occur before the word "fraud." Since the rule of law still applies. To peasants, at least.